Field Trip to Swanage:

A field trip to Swanage was organised for the 28^th – 30^th of September with the intention of the class getting to know one another and it did so perfectly. We had also connected on Facebook weeks before, allowing an unhealthy amount of stalking! The bus trip was three hours and we arrived on Friday afternoon. Friday evening was spent doing show-and-tell with items that represented the reasons we have all chosen to do this course (MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management). Items ranged from a bottle of melted glacier collected in Antarctica to a pair of well-loved hiking boots. I read to story that I made up when I was six about a rhino and a hippo, the illustrations were the highlight! Unsurprisingly, after the show-and-tell we landed up in a pub, this happens a lot in England!

On Saturday we got our first taste of national parks in England. First we went to Arne RSPB Nature Reserve which is a heathland environment and also has salt marshes and boggy areas; we saw some alien deer, many birds, a giant ant mound and the extremely rare smooth snake. After Arne we went to Studland Bay National Trust Nature Reserve which is home to a very popular beach as well as large areas of heathland. We ate lunch at Corfe Castle, which is ruined and mostly sliding off the hill in pieces! We also did a cliff walk which culminated in a massive concrete globe, I'm sure you can imagine my excitement…

 Our guide explaining conservation at Arne

 Experimenting on the impact of deer on heathland

 Ponds and bogs at Arne

 The smooth snake, England's rarest reptile

 Corfe Castle

Class mates dressed up

 Studland beach

 Crazy classmates, it was cold!

 Cliff walk wildlife

 The giant globe!

Saturday night also involved a pub, some hilarious dancing and some dangerous darts. It was great fun as we were all starting to get to know one another. We landed up in a park on both nights, the park had some fantastic equipment, including a bowl swing big enough for two and a spinning disc. On Sunday we went to New Forest National Park which is a fantastic mix of heathland, bog and forest. It is a very popular dog walking place and I really loved it. Traditionally a group of people live inside the forest, called commoners, and as it is crown land they are allowed to stay. They have wild ponies that live in the forest and have adapted to a very hard life.

New forest ponies

New Forest

The field trip was very interesting from a conservation point of view; heathland is a man-made environment that was a consequence of farming practices in the area. Conservationists here spend a huge amount of money and energy protecting the heathland from forest encroachment, which seems insane to many of us because the forest is natural and the heathland isn't  This highlighted a fundamental difference between conservation here and at home, conservation here is for people (particularly locals) to have access to and enjoy; for example dog walking was allowed in all of the parks. In contrast, South African protected areas aim to conserve natural environments as they were before human influence and access is often seen as a necessary evil, particularly local access. Although many of us found it bizarre to conserve a man-made environment that has very little biodiversity, the parks are extremely popular and have huge public support. If access to parks was more free in South Africa they would have greater local support and probably fewer problems with poaching and human-wildlife conflict.

Very interesting field trip that gave us lots to think about!